The field of art to which this invention pertains is the conversion of an organic feedstock which contains oxygen compounds and a halogen component to produce hydrocarbonaceous compounds having a reduced concentration of halogen moieties.
There has always been a demand for the conversion or disposal of waste or by-product streams which originate in the petroleum chemical and petrochemical industries. More particularly, these by-products originate from the chlorination of olefins in the production of epichlorohydrin, propylene oxide and vinyl chloride monomers, for example. It is common in such streams for the predominate species to be halogenated alkanes, but, in addition, in some cases, there are present oxygen compounds such as aldehydes and ketones that can subsequently decompose to water during subsequent processing, thereby leading to the undesirable corrosion of the reactor and its associated piping. This production of water leads to formation of corrosive aqueous solutions and the contamination of any desired anhydrous hydrogen halide product streams. Previous techniques utilized to dispose of waste streams containing halogen components, oxygen compounds and other heteroatomic compounds have frequently become environmentally unpopular or illegal and, in general, have always been expensive. With the increased environmental emphasis for the treatment and recycle of halogenated organic compounds, there is an increased need for the conversion of these products when they become unwanted. Therefore, those skilled in the art have sought to find feasible techniques to convert such feedstocks to provide hydrocarbonaceous product streams having a reduced concentration of halogen which may be safely and usefully employed or recycled. Previous techniques which have been employed include incineration and dumping which, in addition to potential pollution considerations, fail to recover valuable hydrocarbonaceous materials and the resulting halogen compounds.
Recently the prior art has disclosed various processes for the conversion of halogenated organic streams to dispose of the streams, to produce hydrocarbons and halides, to recycle valuable raw materials, or a combination thereof. However, at least some of the halogenated organic streams which are candidates for conversion have been discovered to contain small quantities of oxygen compounds. We have discovered an improved process which is capable of successfully processing an organic feedstock containing oxygen compounds and a halogen component.